


Mazes and Mirrors

by DreamerInSilico



Series: Original flashfic [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Flash Fic, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Sarah attempts to use Tremaux's algorithm, and gave me a new level of delight about my favorite movie, before she realizes the goblins are changing her marks, in the early part of the Labyrinth, self-indulgent Labyrinth references, this fic sent me on a two-hour research tangent about maze-solving algorithms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 12:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13590474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamerInSilico/pseuds/DreamerInSilico
Summary: Adrian is taking their final exam, and encounters a maze of mirrors.  (Sci-fi with a fair amount of implied worldbuilding)





	Mazes and Mirrors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Chuck Wendig's weekly flashfic challenge, using a random image as a prompt; image (which ended up having very little to do with what I wrote, but hey) here: http://gallery.photo.net/photo/9264131-md.jpg

_You can’t take anything for granted._ **  
**

Adrian rolled their eyes with exasperated amusement at the hint-plaque on the archway before them, and stepped into the maze.  They had a rather solid guess as to which Master of Novices had designed this final challenge - there was one in particular who had a pervasive fondness for Old Earth culture, and gleefully incorporated bits of it wherever she could.  

How many of their fellow graduating novices would understand the reference?  Not enough for the challenge to hinge on it, certainly, and they were being tested on logic, critical thinking, and creativity, not cultural trivia - which left the “hint” feeling rather ludicrously obvious when Adrian turned toward a side passage and suddenly encountered the smooth surface of a mirror (along with their reflection, at a range close enough that the angle ceased to matter).  

Right, then.  Meaningless as it really was in a VR environment, they paused, raked cerulean hair away from their face and considered their options.  

Wall-following was easy, and would make them less dizzy, as they could close their eyes most of the time and just operate on touch, obviating the confusing effect of the mirrored walls.  But - _it was easy_ , and they rather doubted the challenge was as trivial yet tedious as solving a simply-connected mirror maze.  (One of the earlier challenges  _had_  been as trivial as it seemed, which was in fact the challenge, but that wasn’t this Master’s style, at all.)  Modified wall-following seemed to have some potential, but it was still too easy to foil that solver method.  

Depth-first search, then.  Might as well just start with the most robust algorithm they knew of for a traveler within a maze.  The “ground” in the simulation was smooth and nearly featureless, but…  

Adrian dropped into a crouch to frown at it for a moment, seeking out any distinguishing irregularities and finding none.  ( _You can’t take anything for granted_.)  They reached down almost hesitantly with one finger and dragged it along the ground, and while their feet had left no marks whatsoever, their fingertip sank in as if in soft polymer clay, drawing an easily-visible furrow.  

That had to be important, surely.  Smirking to themself, they rose to their feet and slowly picked their way to a clear junction, using touch as much as sight to find it, and leaving a mark in the ground-stuff indicating the direction they chose to explore first.  

And so it went.  

After perhaps half a subjective hour, Adrian began to get annoyed.  These challenges weren’t supposed to be long and tedious once you’d figured out the trick.  ( _You can’t take anything for granted_.)  …Were they?  Could this be a perseverance test, as well as a logical one?  It wouldn’t be absurd, they supposed; they knew well enough that not every real problem had a shortcut.  Sometimes no matter how clever one was, a certain amount of brute force had to be applied to a situation.  

They paused, took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and continued their painstaking path, marking each junction as they took it.  

Another subjective hour later, and the annoyance they’d forced themself to let go of was back in force.  All the other challenges had taken less than a quarter of an hour after they had grasped the central theme or question being asked.  They pressed on, but they weren’t happy about it.  

( _You can’t take anything for granted_.)  Fatigue and impatience had Adrian implementing the algorithm automatically - besides, there was no real way to choose directions thoughtfully at a junction.  They couldn’t see over the walls (most mirrored, some “real”) of the maze, and the sky was featureless.  There was no basis for such a choice, and so it must be arbitrary.  But now they narrowed their eyes and focused their mind back on every step they took, every junction they encountered.  They began to count steps and memorize short sequences of marks, just to make sure….

After ten subjective minutes of this, they were sure.  “Something is changing my marks,” they hissed under their breath, teeth grinding (and they were certain their actual body was doing the same).  Then they stopped completely, crossed their arms, and shook their head, realizing the humor - for one person, at least, if not them - in what they’d just said.  If the Master of this challenge was actively watching, she had to be laughing at them.  

( _You can’t take anything for granted.)_   Should they shriek in frustration, pound at the nearest wall, and sink to the ground, waiting for a helpful denizen of the maze to show up?

“You can’t take anything for granted,” Adrian murmured aloud, as if shaping the words in sound would make them yield up their secrets.  That  _had_  to have something in it they were missing.  

Could they break through the mirrors?  While it certainly wasn’t something they’d want to try with only their hands and feet  in the physical world, in VR it posed no real threat.  Shrugging, they approached one of the mirrored panels and gave it an experimental kick.  It rattled, but didn’t budge.  

No, of course not.  

…Yet.   _(You can’t take anything for granted.)_   Why even code in the detail of the blasted things rattling in response to being struck, as if these were physical mirrors in less-than-perfect frames?  It wasn’t as though any of the rest of the environment was very realistic, save for the general physics engine it was obviously running.  

Eyes narrowed, Adrian felt along the panel bare-handed, finding the seams on either side.  They ran fingers down one of those seams… and almost, almost missed the slight irregularity inset just over halfway up from the bottom of the panel.  The other side had the same thing.  Also an unnecessary detail in a VR environment  _(Law of Conservation of Detail_ ), unless…

They reached up with both hands, almost as high up the panel as they could, and leaned, putting pressure on the top segment.  

It very obligingly and smoothly (as if to say,  _See?  No need to be rude about it_ ) rotated on the hinges around its horizontal axis, the top section moving away as Adrian pushed, and the bottom rising toward them until they could grasp its edge and get the thing fully flat and out of the way.  

And Adrian laughed.  


End file.
